Culinary Still Life Photography

Photo Feature by Ernesto Gonzalez Diaz

HAVANA TIMES – Still life photography is a photographic genre that depicts inanimate objects often related to culinary art and liquor, although there are also still lifes featuring flowers, floral arrangements, and desk elements.

In this field, the photographer has complete freedom to prepare the scene and arrange the photographed elements as they please, seeking aesthetic compositions that achieve a visually pleasing image. It is worth noting that still life photography has its roots in painting, where since the Middle Ages, paintings with this theme were being created.

Throughout history, great painters have cultivated the genre, which became very popular, especially during the Baroque period with painters like Peter Claesz, Willian Claesz, Georg Flegel, Willem Kalf, Caravaggio, Rachel Ruysch, Diego Velazquez, among other renowned artists. It was also developed in different styles by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Claude Monet.

In Cuba, Amelia Pelaez was its greatest precursor in the early decades of the 20th century, and currently, Cosme Proenza has an extensive series of paintings in this genre.

Still lifes, both in photography and painting, are widely used in the decoration of living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, restaurants, etc.

See more photo galleries here on Havana Times.